


Chronicles of Pern: The Navigator

by Andromeda (lemmy04)



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey, Elite: Dangerous
Genre: Crossover, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27541993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemmy04/pseuds/Andromeda
Summary: What would happen if someone flew a spaceship into the blast of a massive matter/antimatter explosion?
Kudos: 4





	1. Star Fever

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern cycle, but plan to, stay away from this story until you've read the originals - this story is set roughly at the end of book 11, and heavily relies on, and refers to, events as they unfold in that book.
> 
> Also, this might eventually just end up being a few chapters of "Chouchou".

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A 3305’s answer to John Masefields “Sea Fever”
> 
> By Commander Lance Corrimal, Dec 8., 3305
> 
> 3.7 Lightseconds off Hegeia JV-C C26-6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sea Fever is here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54932/sea-fever-56d235e0d871e  
> And here: https://tapas.io/episode/1588342

_I must go to the sky again: the lonely sky and the night,_  
_And all I ask is a good ship, and a star to steer her by;_  
_And the pull of the stars, and witchspace whispering in my ears,_  
_And the hissing of a million worlds in my sensors._

_I must go to the skies again, for the call of space is a strong call,_  
_and a wild call, and a clear call, that rings in your ears, and sings in your blood;_  
_And all I ask is a fast jump, and a far jump, and a fine girl_  
_to kiss me at the voyage's end, or maybe just some KGB FOAM._

_I must go into the night again: the wild and endless night,_  
_Where countless new worlds roll under my feet, countless riches unclaimed,_  
_and the light glitters on icy pinnacles, and on dusty rocks,_  
_and the wonders of radio frequencies shifting into light before my eyes._

_I must go to the sky again: to the wild rovers life, the pioneer’s way, and the pathfinders habits,_  
_where the jets of neutron stars push you further, and faster, than man would have dared to dream before,_  
_and then I will sleep, and dream, sweet dreams of home,_  
_when the long voyage is over._


	2. Splash one

"Arriving at destination in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

The ship dropped out of witch space with that wet, sticky sounding "whoomp" that even after almost three millennia of hyperspace travel noone had managed to successfully explain - after all, there's no sound in the vacuum of space, even less so in hyperspace...

A golden G-type sun filled the forward view screen as the automated onboard systems slowed the ship to a relative stop at the navpoint, and started all the routine scans and checks.

The first officer, according to a command issued several hyper jumps ago, hailed the commander over the internal comms systems.

"Commander, we have arrived at HD 181869. Please come to the bridge."

"Right."

The double door to the bridge hissed open. The commander entered, and took his place in his command chair, looking at the view screens that surrounded him on almost 270° horizontally and vertically.

_it's been on the market for over 2000 years but the Asp is still any explorers wet dream with this glass dome cockpit - the views still amaze me every time,_ he thought.

"Crewman Dark, prepare the fuel scoop."

"Already done, commander, as per your standing orders. We are at 98% of fuel capacity and rising.", a somewhat monotonous voice replied - which was a bit odd, considering that the other seat in the two seated cockpit was empty, with only a sticky-note taped to the back which read "reserved for LapisLazuli".

"Crewman Eden, run discovery scan."

"Discovery scan finished. Single Star, Gold G-Type. Five planets, two asteroid belts, and one irregular - a rocky planet on a cometary orbit, most likely an orphan captured by this system's gravity well."

"Crewman Dark, engage FSS."

The view on the forward screen changed to a blurry blue with lines symbolizing the orbits of all bodies in the system as the FSS, short for Full Spectrum System scanner, came to life. Using the top hat controls on his flight stick, the commander moved the view around until a white dot was centered in the crosshairs, then zoomed in until the planet (because that was what the dot symbolized) was visible, so the scanner could do its job.

"Rocky planet, possibly metal-rich, tidally locked".

Another white dot was centered and scanned.

"Rocky planet, possibly metal rich."

And another...

"Class II Gas Giant."

And another...

"Rocky ice world."

And another...

"Rocky ice world."

And another...

"Earth-like world. Two moons."

_Hmm. Earth-like. That one is definitely worth a surface scan. Maybe I'll just do them all._

"Crewman Astra, we're going to do the full survey. Which one's closest?"

Yet another voice replied, "At this time the erratic is actually the closest to our current position, as it's just past its perihelion."

"Crewman Dark, set course for the erratic and engage autocruise."

"Aye Aye Commander."

As the ship turned away from the star the erratic came into view, emitting a dull, reddish glow. Burst of light started to streak towards the ship as it picked up speed.

About ten minutes later the ship slowed down again, coming to a relative stop one thenth of a lightsecond away.

"Prepare and launch DSS probes."

"Aye Aye commander."

He watched as the probes impacted on the planet, mapping its surface in the process.

"Signal source detected."

A yellow beacon lit up on the map display, bearing a legend of "unknown signal source".

He grabbed the controls and increased thrust to take the ship closer to be able to scan whatever it was that had sparked the computer's interest.

"Disengage supercruise."

The ship now completely dropped back into normal space, and the dull, red surface of the erratic planet filled the view. A immense canyon crossed the surface at an angle of roughly 45°. The source of the unknown signal was halfway down the canyon.

He inched the ship closer, trying to get into proper range for a datalink scan but staying away far enough - just in case. There are all kind of things out here, and if there was anything worse than the Thargoids he did not want the fame of being the first to meet it. GalCorp Health Insurance did cover all kind of medical expenses, but not that kind of stuff.

"Commander, the signal has been identified. It's a distress beacon coming from an old pre-supercruise-era ship engine. The ship has been identified as the Yokohama, one of three colonization vessels that were sent here during the FSP era, just after the Nathi wars.

There is one irregularity: the scan show some kind of tanks strapped to the sides of the antimatter containment of the engine."

"Is there a place to land so I can reach the engine with the SRV."

"The engine is located on a rocky ledge halfway down the side of the canyon. It is impossible to reach with the surface rover."

"Take us down into the canyon, as close to that engine as safely possible."

The ship started to move, very slowly. At this rate it would take a while to get close enough to that old engine to find out what was going on...

"Crewman Eden, tell me more about this system."

And another disembodied voice - this one sounded like a young girl.

"HD 181869, or HIP 95347. Also known as α Sagittarii, or by its ancient name of Rukbat. A group of three colony ships was sent to colonize the third planet of the system shortly after the end of the Nathi wars. Contact to the colonists was lost, and an investigation team rescued one remaining group of about a dozen people 50 years later. It is assumed that all other colonists perished in what the surviving people called 'threadfall'."

"Commander, we're close enough for a visual of the old engine."

"Enlarge."

The image on the screen that until now had given a perfect impression of being a glass window zoomed in on the engine part that was resting in that canyon.

"Enlarge the area around that tank."

The screen showed that the tank was strapped to the engine with metal cables, and that there was some kind of nozzle from which a liquid was dripping onto the outer hull of the engine. From the large irregular hole under the nozzle it was obvious that the liquid had to be some form of corrosive agent.

"Commander, there is still antimatter inside that engine - the scanners are picking up the emissions. I suggest that we return to a safe distance - the explosion from a matter-antimatter annihilation is not to be laughed at."

"Right. Turn her around, and increase thrust to..."

Too late. The last fraction of an inch of highly strengthened metal gave way to the nitric acid eating away at it, and the antimatter reacted with its surroundings, annihilating itself into pure energy.

The blast hit the little ship full from behind, shattering most of its outer hull and knocking out most of its internal systems.

Only the emergency rescue mechanism still functioned, and ejected the whole cockpit while immediately putting the pilot into cryosleep, thus saving the life of the pilot.

Deep in artificial coma he did not know, or care about the fact that the blast had altered the orbit of the erratic - just a bit, but enough to eventually let it drop into the sun.

The small onboard computer that was in control of the escape module accessed the data from the earlier scans of the system, determined that the third planet was the most likely to enable the pilot to survive, and set a course. It would take several weeks, maybe months, to reach its destination due to the weak ion drive that was all the escape pod had, but with the lone occupant being in stasis that did not matter.

* * *

Readis awoke with a start as the bell was rung in the "Report"-sequence. As he rolled out of his bed, he saw the familiar form of Theresa, the large female dolphin that was honoured as "The Tillek" by all the other dolphins - the leader of all the dolphins of Pern.

He slipped into the water of the pool inside his cave, and greeted her.

"Good morning Theresa. What can I do for you?"

"I come to bring news. A Man Thing has fallen into the seas from the sky. It is not like any man things we know. It floats beyond the great current, and we can see that there is a man sleeping inside."

"Can you take me there?"

"It is too far - You can not swim with us for so long. Do you want us to guide other Mans in a ship to it?"

"Could some of you try to push it this way, or is it too big and heavy?"

"We can try. If it is too heavy we will tell you."

* * *

A sevenday later Theresa returned with Cal and Tursi.

"We have pushed the man thing across the great current. Now it will reach land without our help. We think it will reach land near your birthplace."

That would be Paradise River Hold, where his parents and siblings lived, and where he had lived until the day he ran away to become a dolphineer - before he found this cave, and then was accepted by The Tillek as The dolphineer.

"How long would you thing until it reaches land?"

"Maybe seven more days. We will tell you."

"Please also tell my parents, and Alemi. Send word to the Paradise River Pod."

"That we can do."

Alemi, the young fisherman, was the older brother of masterhaper Menolly, the spouse of the MasterHaper Sebell, who had taken over the Management of the harper guild after Master Robinton had passed away shortly after The Greap Plan had succeeded - after all the Weyrs of Pern had worked together to detonate the engines of all three colonization ships on the Red Planet to alter its orbit enough so it would never again come close enough to drop Thread on Pern.


End file.
